Locals
������������������ LOCALS Episode Three, Season One, of Heartland. Enjoy <3 HUNTER Raymond’s in my squad. We’re supposed to be a training squad but mixed with training officials; Raymond tells me sometimes Tigerstripe sends us on the missions instead of wasting valuable soldiers. I survey my new squad. Supposedly once we exceeded training limits, we would be removed from the squad and placed into an actual one. This usually means either filling in places or actually forming a new one with other recruits and of course medics. My training consists of two normal soldiers (supervisors or trainers I believe), Captain Thrushclaw, and four trainees. The trainers are two broad-shouldered cats. One is a reddish brown tabby tom with golden eyes by the name of Goldgaze. He was grumbling about some tiny black she-cat who had tried to get in with “medic” skills who he had tried to turn down before she performed extremely good medic abilities and embarrassed him. The other is a she-cat named Robinflight; she’s red-brown with light green eyes. And then there’s the other trainees. There’s the skinny black tom that showed me to Tigerstripe’s den and to my den: Raymond. He’s looking nervous and shuffling. Next to him is a ginger tom with hazel eyes. He goes by the name Honor, which I find strange. (Who names their kit Honor?) My eyes shift over to a scowling she-cat. She is the tiniest thing I’ve ever seen in my life, tinier than that black she-cat who patched up my wounds. She’s a brown tabby with keen green eyes. Fittingly, her name is Tiny. I found out fast enough that Tiny hated comments on her size. Raymond nudges me. “Hey, snap out of it, Hunter. Thrushclaw is giving orders and this will be the fifth time he has to remind you to pay attention. At this rate you’ll get yourself demoted.” “This is the lowest level, dummy,” Tiny mutters. Raymond shrugs. “I’m just trying to get him to pay attention, that’s all.” Tiny gives him a sneer but at that moment the captain barks. “Tiny, Raymond, stop bickering. Do I need to remind you that we’re already the lowest level? I could have different punishments given to you if you continue to misbehave.” Tiny turns into a funny color. She’s obviously embarrassed, and I remember hearing Raymond tell me that Tiny got demoted due to her rashness in her previous patrol that earned her the fancy little scar she has on her left flank. Raymond is definitely not a dummy, nor is he dense. He’s sixteen moons old and the youngest recruit in all of the recruits. Seventeen is the cut-off but Raymond is an exception due to his extreme brain power. “As I was saying, we’re going to be training in pairs. This cat will be your partner and if all works out, you’ll remain with the pair when you move on. If you all work well together, the four of you will move on and form a separate patrol yourself.” I perk my ears. A real squad sounded nice for sure. Tiny gives a growl of annoyance. I realize she must have been on an actual squad before being demoted. “Choose a partner.” Tiny eyes Raymond and I. “I’m not working with either of you dummies.” She turns and heads for Honor, “I’ll be your partner.” Honor looks taken aback to have such an outspoken she-cat choose him, but he shrugs. Raymond glances at me, “That leaves me with you, big guy.” I flick my ear, “I’m not that big,” I roll my eyes, but compared to the rest of the trainees (minus Honor; that tom is huge), I’m large. I’m not that disappointed that I got stuck with the intelligent, skinny tom because Honor looks way too serious for me and Tiny is like a burr in my pelt (literally, she’s seriously the smallest cat I know). “For today, we will practice a few team routines. You need to have a partner in your squad to trust and rely on. It’s safer this way to have someone watching your backs at all times.” “If you’re watching your partner’s back and he’s watching yours, how do you fight?” I call out. Thrushclaw shoots me a dirty look and I resist the urge to bare my teeth back at him. I try to maintain a serious face and Raymond rolls his eyes in exasperation. Tiny scowls at me while Honor ignores the rest of us. Aren’t we a fun group… The two warriors help Thrushclaw train us. Raymond and I get grumpy Goldgaze while Tiny and Honor get the patient looking Robinflight. Captain Thrushclaw hovers over all of us, correcting our forms and mistakes. “This is an attacker’s crouch,” Goldgaze tells us, “Now you do it.” I examine his form. He looks like he’s hunkering over a piece of prey, hiding it from view. I shrug and crouch down, copying his form. Raymond is a bit of a struggle in this area. He’s obviously a brainy cat, not so much built for fighting and brute strength. As he crouches, he looks like he’s cowering from his enemy instead. I just want to lean over and push him over to show him how pathetic he looks. Goldgaze spends a few minutes grumbling at Raymond on how terrible he is at fighting and Raymond easily shoots back a few witty remarks, with terms nobody has ever heard of. “Captain Thrushclaw!” Another recruit comes in, “Commander Tigerstripe requests to see you right away.” “Keep training,” Thrushclaw orders us before striding after the recruit. It takes him a full hour to return. When he does, he has a dark, unsettling look in his normally neutral eyes. We all stand to attention and I stare strange ahead, trying not to let my gaze wander after the captain. “At ease, soldiers and recruits.” We relax and I seat myself next to Raymond. “Commander Tigerstripe has revealed to me that a group of locals have been rioting near NightClan’s borders and have been demanding to speak to a NightClan official about our soldiers hunting on their lands. Our orders are to get rid of them peacefully.” I feel a thrill. It’s only my first day and we’re already on a mission. “Stick with your partners and your soldier, recruits. Do not disobey my orders as that may cost your life when you don’t know what you’re doing.” “Peacefully and losing your life don’t match,” Raymond mutters in my ear. I resist the urge to snort and dig my claws impatiently into the dirt. Peacefully or not peacefully, I was itching for a chance to prove my worth. We set out just ten minutes after debriefing. Captain Thrushclaw remains serious the entire time, and no side conversations are to be heard while on the mission (I say to be heard because I can’t resist to sneak a few words to Raymond). I hear the borders before we see them. The rioting locals are loud. Stars, they must really hate NightClan. I reflect to the black she-cat I saw the other day, the one who had treated my wounds. Did she hate the Clan too? Shaking her out of my thoughts, I focus on the task ahead of me. No time to worry about she-cats I won’t see again anyways. “You filthy soldiers just hunt and loot our lands! Have you got no respect for your own neighbors and allies?” Demanding shouts come from across the border, where a few patrols – real ones – are already there to keep them back. Captain Thrushclaw forces his way to the front. “Please,” he appeals to them, “I realize you are angry with us for seemingly destroying your lands, but when on missions, sometimes your lands are the only way for us to get prey. You must understand, this is war and we need our supplies.” “So do us!” The ringleader snarls, “You don’t see us stealing your prey and herbs!” Tried that one already, I think ruefully, nearly got shredded. As Thrushclaw continues to try to negotiate with the locals, someone shouts something unintelligible and launches himself at the captain. Immediately both sides react. Thrushclaw ducks and knocks the locals away and we surge to defend our captain. “No claws!” The captain shouts out, “We are not here to fight!” I sheath my claws hastily just as I sock a local in the jaw. He yowls and digs his claws into my pelt. That nasty little sucker. I jab my paw into his stomach and feel my claws beginning to slide out. I hold back though, unwilling to let myself get in trouble for digging my claws into this local’s stomach. He gets to meaning and turns tail. The fighting goes on for about five minutes before the locals finally stream away, almost untouched but bruised. All of the NightClan squads are bleeding, some more heavily than others. I’m still running on adrenaline, so when Thrushclaw comes over to talk to me, I nearly jump him instead. “Steady,” he eases me back, “the fight’s over and you did well. I can see you’re a very good fighter already.” “Thanks,” I say breathlessly, “next time if they won’t a fight, they can have one.” My blue-green eyes glowing from the battle. “Another time,” Thrushclaw agrees and he moves on to the next cat. Raymond appears at my side. He’s bleeding from a few scratches but he’s relatively unharmed. “That’s a nasty scratch you have on your side,” Raymond notes, “guessing you dealt with that local after that.” I shoot the skinny tom a look. “What is that supposed to mean?” “Nothing,” he twitches his whiskers, “we’d make a great team.” “As if,” I scoff, “you can’t even fight.” “Fighting isn’t everything,” Raymond smiles, “after all, who has less scars from this battle?” Although he has a point, I scowl. “If I had orders to use my claws, more locals would be dead around me than around you.” “You’d still be more injured.” Before I can think of anything to retort back, Thrushclaw orders us all to head back. “Head straight for the medics section once you get back, I don’t want any of your wounds getting injured, even the tiniest ones.” I head for the medics and wait in line as each medic instructs some of the recruit medics. I hear it’s quite hard to get in the army as a medic. “Okay, come with me. I’ll treat your wounds--” The she-cat looks up and I find myself staring into the soft brown eyes of the tiny she-cat who’s paws had patched up my wounds just days ago. NOELLE Category:Heartland